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Alex Pham

contributing editor

Flat is the new up. The U.S. recorded music industry posted $6.996 billion in revenue for 2013, down a fraction from $7.016 billion in 2012. Sales from CD's, vinyl and other physical formats dropped 12.3%, while digital grew 7.6% last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Marc Geiger, the head of music for William Morris Endeavor who co-founded Lollapalooza and was an early proponent of digital streaming, has personally invested an undisclosed amount in Audiam, a start-up that collects money from YouTube on behalf of publishers and rights holders. Geiger also agreed to advise Audiam as part of the arrangement.

If you happen to notice your Spotify activity window flooded with plays of Vulfpeck’s latest album “Sleepify,” it is not because of how good the songs are -- as a matter of fact, the 10-song set is absolutely silent. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based funk troupe is using Spotify’s royalty-payment system to fund (and even plot the course of) its upcoming Sleepify Tour.

Canada experienced a bone jarring decline in download sales starting in September, mirroring a similar though less dramatic drop in the U.S. around the same time. What's to blame for this slide? Hint: It's not Spotify.

Beats Music has raised a second round of funding of aproximatly $60 million according to a source familiar with the talks. This investment is reportedly entirely from current investors and thought to include Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre and Access Industries with the cash being used to invest in product development, acquiring new customers and marketing.

Spotify, which appears to be putting the pieces in place for a possible initial public offering of its stock, on Thursday added a key component to its company by acquiring The Echo Nest, a data company and recommendation engine used by several of Spotify's competitors, as well as a host of music applications. The companies' CEOs speak to Billboard about what's next for their business.